Open Range — Restaurant in Bozeman

This is a newer, beautiful restaurant from Jay Bently , who ran The Mint Bar & Cafe in Belgrade, MT for years very successfully. Having had many celebration dinners there, my niece wanted to try his new place in Bozeman. I Went with my sister, a friend and my niece for her 29th birthday. While i was parking our vehicle, the girl's went in to get seated. This being an UPSCALE restaurant with knowledgeable wait staff they were surprised that "one" of the hostesses (knowing my niece is a wheelchair user) tried to seat them via a staircase. ..hhmmm?? After she was told three times that wheelchairs CONNOT climb stairs, they asked her if there was a ramp to access the upper seating area were our table was....but they were told NO. Turns out there IS a ramp!! I followed in about 5 min later and asked to be seated with my party & not knowing i was talking with a "different" hostess, i was told they had not checked in or had been seated yet so i had her take me to our table anyway...SURPRISE, there they were already seated!! Ok , so the "hostess" who seated the girls at first couldnt figure out that wheelchairs can't climb stairs and to note that we had arrived for our reservation.... things got better but not GREAT (we think she may have been drunk). Our waitress introduced herself, took drink orders & told us of the nightly specials. Being on the busy side drinks didn't take too long but she did forget to bring the Tea ordered for one of us. Dinner orders were placed and our shared appetizers arrived while i was using the restroom. My niece thoroughly enjoyed her Escargot but our cheese plate came with ONE piece of bread for 3 people...hhmmm? Upon returing from the restroom (and then ordering more bread) i was just starting to enjoy our starter when a busgirl began clearing the other's appetizers dishes and asked to clear mine...i said i was still eating and asked her not too. Entrees arrived shortly thereafter and the busgirl just took away the appetizer i was still working on , so i just gave up my plate...hhmmm ? A signature item of thier's, the Ribeye Steak arrived NOT done to order, but the problem was fixed and were delicious!! My sister & our friend "split" a steak and therefore ordered extra sides (due to the bread incident) not knowing the split came wih full portions which might have been usefull information from our waitress. We then asked for the Dessert menu after our dinner and it had some great choices. We each decided on what we wanted only to find out our choices were sold out....once again, that would have been some useful information beforehand !! Away from the table I asked our waitress to bring my niece a "surprise" dessert (including a candle) i picked out for her, but then put out silverware first..... OOP'S, there goes the surprise!. The girls loved it but my niece didnt like the sound of the Smoked Peach Creme Brulee with Candied Bacon that i ordered for her and decided on an EXCELLENT homemade chocolate icecream. The place is beautiful with high arched wooden cielings, fun (a bit loud) music playing, LOTS of black & white photos of LOCAL pet dogs (bring in a pic & they'll put up yours too!) and It was a very nice evening, but for the prices paid ($$$$) they should be doing a much better job and have staff properly trained in ALL aspects of fine (casual) dining. I have had many fine meals at Mr. Bently's prior restaurant, but i am still struggling to justify the price of our bill ($210 for 3 entrees, 6 drinks, 2 desserts) compared to the level of service recieved. Perhaps "biting" off more than he could chew..... I do hope it was just an off night for Jay and...

13 dudes walked through a completely empty Open Range to a Hogwartz-like table in the back, as this was the dinner for the bachelor party.

I was seated at one of the heads, and immediately absorbed my surroundings. The first thing I picked up on was a Tshirt hanging in the kitchen that had Trump's Mugshot with the text "Wanted... For President."

The 2nd thing I picked up on was our waitress looked straight out of the Renaissance. She looked just like the Mona Lisa, but with a modern twist. I'm really shy, but after a negroni or 2, I told her as much.

I thought it was a compliment, but I don't think she really appreciated it.

I know she went back to the kitchen and took a good hard look at a picture of the Mona Lisa on google images, because she came back and said "The Mona Lisa is NOT cute..." I jabbed back with "It's literally the most valuable portrait ever painted..."

My homie, who the group knows as "The Rizzler," chimed in with a "You're like if the Mona Lisa was extremely beautiful..."

He proceeded to ask her to be his date to the wedding, but she is in a very happy relationship. Shooters shoot though and he stays shooting turn-around fades over the double team. You can't help but respect that.

After we all went around the table saying kind/not so kind words about the Bachelor, we put in our orders.

I went with the 16oz Beef Ribeye ($72) because I'm a beast. Diesel, one of the groomsmen who I met on this trip, asked if they had a burger to which Mona said "No, I'm sorry..."

Diesel whispered to me in a genuinely curious, yet slightly embarrassed tone "Is a Ribeye good? I've never had one." I held back my internal thoughts of "BRO YOU'VE NEVER HAD A RIBEYE!?!?!?" as he proceeded to confide in me that he had the palate of an 8 year old, but wanted to expand his taste. I told him he had to pull the trigger on the Ribeye.

The food came and as I sat there thinking this ribeye was the poster child for a 7.5/10, Diesel grabs my arm while smiling from ear to ear and says while still chewing "Bro oh my god, this is legit the best steak I've ever had in my life."

I love the Diesels of the world, genuinely happy to experience new things in life that I take for granted. We are all on our own journeys through life.

We were in here for about 2 and a half hours total, ripping wine, negronis, coors lights, espresso martinis, and some 7.5/10 Ribeyes. Idk why, but I knew sitting there that this dinner would be a core memory for me. It’s always cool to know you are in a core memory while you are actually in one.

IG @jnov_ Tiktok...

We made reservations for a very special occasion to celebrate my daughter’s engagement. I walked to the restaurant a week before the dinner to discuss the event and they thanked me and said they would do something special. I suggested a candle on the dessert. Other restaurants we have visited would write Happy Birthday or Anniversary on the plate with chocolate. On the night of the dinner we arrived and were greeted warmly and ushered to our table. Champagne, cocktails, appetizers were all great. We placed our meal orders and side dishes. This is a high dollar place which we knew and expected. That is where everything fell apart. My future son-in-law ordered another beer. It never came. The meat dishes were placed on the table. A piece of meat on the middle of a white plate. Sides didn’t come out for a little while but fairly timely. The meat was good but exceptional as you would expect for the price. The sides were excellent! My husband and I ordered a nice glass of red wine to enjoy the $65 beef. We asked about it several times but were told the bar was backed. But our waiter was relaxing talking to another waiter. (How hard is it to pour a glass of wine?). We finished our meal and said we no longer needed the wine. We were told “not to worry about it,” that we wouldn’t be charged. Our future son-in-law said his beer never came. Our water glasses were never filled and the waiter didn’t check on us. We ordered 2 desserts and asked for plenty of spoons to all take a bite. There were 6 of us. The desserts came, but no spoons. We waited a long time and decided to eat the crème brûlée and ice cream on skillet cookie with forks. We couldn’t find our waiter and walked around looking for a station to grab spoons. I finally found the manager and asked for spoons. He brought them but we were mostly done. The dinner before tip was close to $900. The service started strong but ended terribly. For the high dollar place it is the service was more like a burger joint. We had stopped going to the Open Range a few years ago because of service but thought we would give it a try because we read they were under new management. It is the last time we will visit this restaurant. We should have tried Heist for the money. Years ago we loved Open Range for special occasions. So did our monthly dinner party friends. The seven couples we dine with monthly have all given up on Open Range and wanted to know if our experience. Sadly I had to share things have not changed except...